The federal government has just renamed a lake on Mount Rainier after a drive to remove a derogatory word from geographic features around the country.<\/p>\n
The lake, located on the national park’s Wonderland Trail, was originally named “Squaw Lake”.<\/p>\n
That was a problem, since the word is considered derogatory by many in the Native American community, not least by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland; she announced on Feb. 22 that more than 660 lakes, rivers, peaks, and other geographic features would be renamed after a task force solicited for suggestions and consulted with tribes.<\/p>\n
“Words matter, particularly in our work to make our nation’s public lands and waters accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds. Consideration of these replacements is a big step forward in our efforts to remove derogatory terms whose expiration dates are long overdue,” Haaland, the first-ever Native American to serve as a U.S. cabinet member, said in a press release. <\/p>\n
“Throughout this process, broad engagement with Tribes, stakeholders and the general public will help us advance our goals of equity and inclusion,” Haaland said.<\/p>\n
The task force consulted with nearly 70 tribes and received more than 1,000 suggestions for name changes.<\/p>\n
The lake’s new name is “Kiya Lake” and was suggested by the Puyallup Tribe; in Whulshootseed (or Twulshootseed), the tribe’s language, “Kiya” means “Grandmother”.<\/p>\n
The Department of the Interior’s official decision to rename the lake, which was announced late September, became effective immediately on the federal level.<\/p>\n
However, according to Washington state Department of Natural Resources Communications Manager Kenny Ocker, the name is not yet changed on the state level — this requires an outside application be submitted to the state Committee on Geographic Names (overseen by the DNR).<\/p>\n
“It’s heartening to see this feature to be renamed to not have the feature bearing a derogatory term toward Indigenous women,” he added.<\/p>\n
About 19 other names of various geographical features were renamed in Washington state, ranging from a pair of islands in Klickitat County (now named Sq’wanana) to a spring in Garfield County (now South Tucannon Spring).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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